Meanings
- simileExtremely easy; sometimes with a connotation of triumph but at other times with a connotation of being meaningless and unsatisfying.
Standing on those long straight roads with the speed detection gun was like shooting fish in a barrel, somebody said.
2005 March 29, John S. Doyle, “We're all sport crazy... but for all the wrong sports”, in Irish Independent, Ireland, retrieved 18 Jul 20122 more examples
Opponents contend that the lumbering creatures are so easy to shoot that a moose hunt is a slaughter, not a sport. "It's like shooting fish in a barrel," they say.
1982 April 2, Associated Press, “Entrants Gamble For Chance To Stalk Big Game”, in The Dispatch, USA, retrieved 18 Jul 2012, page 20For a photographer, shooting twins at the annual Twins Days Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio, must be like shooting fish in a barrel.
2003 October 24, Ken Johnson, “Art in Review: Mary Ellen Mark—‘Twins’”, in New York Times, retrieved 18 Jul 2012Synonyms: easy as pie, like taking candy from a baby
Synonyms & antonyms
prepositional phraseExtremely easy; sometimes with a connotation of triumph but at other times with a connotation of being meaningless and unsatisfying.
Translations
Chinese Mandarin 甕中捉鱉 /瓮中捉鳖, 易如反掌
- 甕中捉鱉 /瓮中捉鳖 (wèngzhōngzhuōbiē)extremely easy
- 易如反掌 (yìrúfǎnzhǎng)extremely easy
- 得来全不费功夫 (dé lái quán bù fèi gōngfū)extremely easy
French simple comme bonjour, bête comme chou
- simple comme bonjourextremely easy
- bête comme chouextremely easy
- con comme la luneextremely easy
Korean 누워서 떡먹기
- 누워서 떡먹기 (nuwoseo tteongmeokgi)extremely easy
Russian проще пареной репы, раз плюнуть
- проще пареной репы (prošče parenoj repy)extremely easy
- раз плюнуть (raz pljunutʹ)extremely easy
Swedish som att sno godis från småbarn
- som att sno godis från småbarnextremely easy
Cite this entry
like shooting fish in a barrel. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/like%20shooting%20fish%20in%20a%20barrel
“like shooting fish in a barrel.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/like%20shooting%20fish%20in%20a%20barrel. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “like shooting fish in a barrel,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/like%20shooting%20fish%20in%20a%20barrel.
Source: like shooting fish in a barrel on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.